Western Railroad Discussion > An SD45 fix for spring

At MP 8.8 on UP's Greeley (CO) sub. is the Andesite Rock Company, a subsidiary of L. G. Everist. They were a supplier of aggregate for the construction of DIA. They have used a variety of locomotives. A few years ago they had a pair of ex-Milwaukee chop-nosed GP9's. One of these units would not reliably make transistion and they had acquired an ex-SP SD39 which ran with one of the GP9's. After that they had a pair of the SD39's that had been painted for Rio Grande and used in a movie (I believe). The best of all has been the arrival (2001) of DAIR SD45's 2801/2701. They are ex Rio Grande 5331 and 5339 although I don't know which is which. These were Rio Grandes 2nd batch of SD45's which arrived when I was an apprentice at Burnham shops (Spring '68). They have the brake cylinders on the truck side frames. DAIR (Dakota and Iowa Railroad I believe) is a L. G. Everist property at Siox City. The units have a logo for Ortonville Stone Co. on the cabs. The units left the Andesite location on April 2nd to go to the Buford Wyoming quarry. They returned on April 8th with loads which is the date of this pic. The shot was taken upon their arrival at 96th Ave. while the conductor is walking south to open the switch and throw the derail. . . Joe S.

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